Night World: The Assassin - Part 1
by jez
Summary: This is my warped idea of why Strange Fate is not sitting on my bookshelf :)


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Night World or Hunter Redfern, Ash Redfern, John Quinn, L.J. Smith (yes she's a character) or anybody else that I borrow from the Night World Series. I am just a delusional 16-year-old who thinks she can write. The characters, Night World, and anything else I borrowed are the property of L.J. Smith and Archway Paperbacks. I would also like to use this space to say that this story is not a threat to LJS's life. It's a pure work of fiction :)**  
  
Night World: The Assassins  
  
It was a miserable day outside in Springwood, Maryland. It was raining, and this wasn't a summer sun-shower, this was a full-blown storm. Joshua Shanshua stared out the window, watching the lightning flash and the street flood. He studied his reflection in the window when the sky wasn't lit up. He smiled a particularly nasty smile, but noticed with annoyance and a twinge of worry that it didn't reach his eyes. His mind started to wander...all he could see was Katie's beautiful face. All of a sudden, he turned and fell into a kung-fu stance.  
  
"What's your problem, Josh? Did I scare ya?" Aria teased. Aria and Josh had been friends practically forever--since even before he had met Jim. Jimson Mordora was his best friend, but Aria was a close second. They had all grown up together, and now they shared this house.  
  
"Heh. In your dreams Aria. So what's up?"  
  
"Not much." She took a deep breath. "Josh..." she began. She studied him closely. "Is something wrong? I mean, you've been acting really weird, and I'm getting worried about you."  
  
"What do you mean 'Is something wrong?' What could be wrong? And since when *don't* I act weird?" He wanted to smile, to laugh, but he feared it would only be a ghost of his usual smile, or that the laugh would sound hollow. He was trying to lighten things up, but he was afraid she could tell. He had to convince her though. Maybe, just maybe, he could convince her. His life could depend on it.  
  
"You've been acting really strange ever since Acacia visited us." Josh immediately tuned her out. Acacia Grandoiseau was a vampire, lamia like him and Jim. She was actually his Great Aunt Acacia, but he never called her that. It was hard to call someone your Great Aunt when she only looked 27. Even if she was actually over 250 years old. Aria was right though. This had all started with Acacia's visit. Josh started to drift off, going back to the day she had arrived, when Aria interrupted him. "Josh! You're not even listening! I was saying how you've been acting strange," which she punctuated with a look that said 'See?' "You haven't been sleeping, you never hang out with us anymore, and Jim says you were hunting deer in the woods yesterday! Deer!" she repeated, as if he was brain-dead. "I can't even remember the last time you hunted an animal...well, besides vermin."  
  
Arianna Moonseed was a typical Circle Twilight witch. She wasn't evil, but she was no saint either. More than once he had considered telling her everything. But once she had uttered that last word, any hope that she could be trusted had died. *Vermin,* he thought bitterly. He hated that word, even though less than three weeks ago he had used it more freely than Aria. "Aria, I'm touched, really," he said sarcastically. He saw the look in her eyes change from concern to amused anger. Josh flashed his nastiest smile, the one he had been practicing in the window, and knew he had convinced her. "I'm going to take a nap now...or is that 'weird'?" he asked her mockingly.  
  
She glared at him, but didn't say a word. Finally, she left him all alone.  
  
Josh glanced out the window one last time before lying down. *Please, let me sleep,* he prayed. As he started to drift off, he hoped to dream of Katie. And he would...but it was not the dream he had hoped for...but the nightmare he feared.  
  
...three weeks earlier...  
  
The whole gang had been there. Josh and Jim were making drinks and popcorn for everyone, while Aria and her best friend Orenda Osbourne, another Circle Twilight witch, picked out a movie. Strem Nichols, Aria's boyfriend, heard the car door first with his super-sensitive werewolf ears. He was the one who opened the front door, revealing a beautiful woman with dark chestnut hair and eyes like emeralds who looked like she couldn't have been more than 10 years older than them.  
  
It took Josh a minute to place her. "Aunt Acacia? What are you doing here?" He had a very strong urge to slam the door shut the second he recognized her. *Where did that come from?* he thought.  
  
"Hi Josh! May I come in?" She asked as she smiled brightly, a smile that looked suspicious to Josh. She looked like she was up to something.  
  
Josh had met Acacia a couple of years ago, when she had come to visit her favorite niece, his mom. He hadn't heard from her, or anyone else in the family, since his parents had died. "Yeah," he said, coming back to the present, "come on in. Guys, this is my Aunt Acacia. Aunt Acacia, this is Strem, Orenda, Aria, and Jim. Do you want a drink or anything?"  
  
"Please, just call me Acacia," she said with a smile. "No thank-you. Actually, Josh, we need to talk. Do you want to take a walk?"  
  
"Actually, we were just gonna..."  
  
"This is kind of important," she said very seriously, without a hint of the smile that had been on her face.  
  
"Uhh, okay. I'll be back guys. Start the movie without me," he said to his friends. He glanced at Acacia before opening a closet and pulling out a leather jacket. "Let's go."  
  
*This walk is going to change my life,* he thought as they walked out the door. "So," he began, "what brings you to town?"  
  
The week before coming to town, Acacia had been up north visiting with Hunter Redfern. Hunter was the leader of the vampires and he practically ran the Joint Council. He had a problem that needed to be dealt with, and he had asked Acacia to see to it that it was done right. Somehow, a young woman named Katie Hart had gotten hold of the secrets of the Night World and was making this information public knowledge. She was a writer under the pseudonym Lisa Jane Smith, and she was writing a series of books based on the Night World.  
  
She was actually telling the personal stories of several vampires, witches, and shapeshifters who were experiencing the soulmate principle. The soulmate principle says that there is one true love for everyone, and once you find that person you can't live without him or her. For some reason the soulmate principle was back, and the Night World would never be the same. 'Shifters were changing humans, witches were telling their sacred legends to them, and once vicious vampires were falling in love with vampire hunters, their sworn enemies. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they were restarting Circle Daybreak. Circles were witch things. Circle Midnight was for the really bad witches, and Circle Twilight was for the normal witches like Aria, but Circle Daybreak was a whole other story. Circle Daybreak was a place for humans, vampires, witches, and 'shifters to come together and put their differences aside. Basically, they were breaking every rule the Night World had.  
  
Josh didn't understand why it was happening. He didn't think *anyone* understood why. But he knew it was true. He had been good friends with two vampires, Ash and Quinn, but they had both turned soft. Ash was trying to keep it under wraps, but Quinn and his soulmate, Rashel, had stood up to Hunter and tried to kill him. That had really upset Hunter, especially since that story made him and his family look bad. That was why he wanted this woman stopped. Along with killing her, he was doing everything in his power to exterminate all these soulmates.  
  
And he had put Acacia in charge of this, because he knew she would do it right. Just like she knew Josh would do a good job and make the family proud. A lot was riding on this job...  
  
As they were heading back to the house, Acacia said, "I know you can handle this Josh. This is your chance to move up in the world. Here's her address." She handed him a slip of paper. "If you have any questions, you know where to reach me. I have to get going now, but I'll probably be back in a couple of days. Please take care of this quickly. Every minute counts. And if you can, find out where she's getting these stories from."  
  
"Okay, I'll leave tonight. Good-bye!" After she drove away, Josh went back into the house. *I have a bad feeling about this,* he thought.  
  
"So," Jim began, "what does your aunt want?"  
  
"Oh, umm," Josh said as he tried to come up with a good lie. Jim would want to come with him, and for some reason Josh didn't want him to. "She asked me to take care of some family stuff for her. I'll probably be back in a week or two."  
  
"Where is she? You making her wait outside?"  
  
"No I'm not making her wait outside," Josh said nastily. "She had to go, but she'll probably be back in a couple of days."  
  
"So, where are you going?" Orenda asked.  
  
"Oh, to umm," he said as he glanced at the paper, "to New Jersey. Not too far."  
  
  
*****Please stay tuned for the next section of The Assassins. And leave a review!!!*****  



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